Can exposure to anaesthesia impede your child's development?

Prior to medical operations, a widely used medicine combination, called general anaesthesia, is used to sedate patients and inhibit the feeling of pain. Although the central nervous system (CNS) is still able to receive auditory, visual, and sensory sensations when anaesthesia is being used, certain pathways of information processing are blocked (1). Anaesthesia can be administered in a variety of methods and to various body areas.

Particularly, NMDA and GABAA ion channels are recognised as key targets in the action of anaesthetics. Animal testing studies show that the influence of neural signalling at these sites can negatively impact the development of the CNS (2). This is due to the fact that glutamate and gamma-ambutyric acid have the capacity to work non-synaptically in the control of neuronal growth. Higher apoptosis levels in the developing brain have been linked to the inhibition of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptors as well as activation of GABAA receptors, during synaptogenesis (formation of synapses).

Comparatively, another research looks at the connection between anaesthetic exposure and neurocognitive development in healthy young children. According to the study, there were no substantial differences in IQ scores in late adolescence between healthy siblings who had no anaesthesia and healthy kids (up to 36 months) who had only experienced anaesthesia once (3).

In conclusion:

It is important to consider that while anaesthesia is generally safe when closely monitored, excessive exposure to it has the potential to cause neurodevelopmental impairments through the induction of apoptosis. Going forward, more research and testing regarding repeated and prolonged exposure should be carried out.

For further information

(1) Antkowiak, B., 2001. How do general anaesthetics work?. Naturwissenschaften, 88(5), pp.201-213.

(2) Gascon, E., Klauser, P., Kiss, J. and Vutskits, L., 2007. Potentially toxic effects of anaesthetics on the developing central nervous system*. European Journal of Anaesthesiology, 24(3), pp.213-224.

(3) Sun, L., Li, G., Miller, T., Salorio, C., Byrne, M., Bellinger, D., Ing, C., Park, R., Radcliffe, J., Hays, S., DiMaggio, C., Cooper, T., Rauh, V., Maxwell, L., Youn, A. and McGowan, F., 2016. Association Between a Single General Anesthesia Exposure Before Age 36 Months and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Later Childhood. JAMA, 315(21), p.2312.